Bottle-corking machine.



No. 760,925. PATENTED MAY 24, 1904.

J. E. SCHNEIDER.

BOTTLE CORKING MACHINE.

APPLvIoATIoN FILED JULY 11, 190s.

No. 760,925. PATENTED MAY24, 1904.

J. F. SCHNEIDER. BOTTLE CORKING MACHINE.

APPLIOATION FILED JULY 11, 190s.

No MODEL. 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Patented May 24, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

.IoHN E. SCHNEIDER,

OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

BOTTLE-CORKING MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 760,925, dated May 24, 1904.

Application filed July l1, 1903.

To all whom it Wawy concern.:

Be it known that I, JOHN F. SCHNEIDER, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city of New York, borough of Manhattan, i-n the county and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Bottle-Oorkng Machine, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to improvements in bottle-corking machines in which the several operations are automatically performed by the act of placing the bottle in thestand or holder'- that is to say, on the introduction of a bottle the machine is started, the bottle is raised, the cork is fed to a position over the bottle,

and the cork driven into the bottle, after which ,the machine is thrown out of gear and stops, so that the corked bottle may be removed by an operator.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will appear in the course of the subjoined description and the novelty will be defined by the annexed claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 4is a front elevation of a bottlecorking machine constructed in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a side elevation thereof. Fig. 3 is avertical longitudinal section. Fig. 4 is a plan view, and Fig. 5 is a detail-transverse section on the plane of the dotted line 5 5pt' Fig. 4 looking in the direction of the arrow.

The frame of theimproved machine is preferably embodied in the form of a hollow column or post 5, which is provided at its lower portion with ,an enlarged base 6, adapted to be secured in any suitable way to a floor. The lower portion of the base is provided with horizontally-alined shaft-bearings 7, which accommodate a horizontal main shaft 8. The end portions of this shaft are extended beyond the base, and on one of said ends is loosely fitted a driving-pulley 9, the latter being propelled by a belt or any other suitable contrivance. On this protruding end of the shaft is rigidly secured a short sleeve 10, adapted in conjunction with other parts to serve as the Serial No. 165,079. (No model.)

1 fast member of a clutch, and the loose pulley 9 is confined'between this fast sleeve 10 and a collar 11, that is clamped or otherwise made fast to the shaft 8 on the opposite side from the short sleeve 10. Said loose pulley 9 is provided at its inner edge with a radial fiange 12, the circumferential edge of which is formed with a series of cam-shaped projections 13, which are separated by intervening shoulders 14, and on this inner face of the pulley is formed a divided or split ring which consists of a series of segmental flanges or webs 15, the latter being separated at their end portions by intervening spaces or notches 16, asl

clearly shown by Fig. 5 of the drawings.

a forked end portion of a short clutch-lever 17, which is fulcrumed on the collar by a transverse pin 18, adapted to pass through the short sleeve lOand the shaft. This clutch-lever 17 is provided on one side with a locking-projection 19, that is adapted to fit in either of the spaces or notches 16 between the members 15 of the divided ring, said clutch-lever being impelled normally toward the pulley by a fiat or leaf spring. 20, arranged to have its free end bear against a shoulder which is formed vby a notch 21 in the short sleeve or collar 10. The clutch-lever is adapted to make the pulley .9 fast with the shaft8 when the machine is in motion; A but the means for automatically lthrowing this clutch-lever out of locking-engagement with the pulley before the removal of a bottle from the machine will be hereinafter described more fully.

22 designates a bracket-arm which extends horizontally from the front side of the post .or column 5, and in this bracket-arm is slid.

ably tted a vertical stem 23, adapted to carry the bottle-holder 24. The stem 23 is hollow, and in its lower end is placed a pin 25, the latter being provided with a cross-pin 26, arranged to play in a suitable slot 27, which is formed in the lower part of the 'stem 23. Vithin this hollow stem is placed a coiled spring 28, adapted to cushion the downward movement of the stem and prevent breakage of the bottle which is placed on the stand 24. The bottle-stand has a short rod 29, which is fitted in the upper part of the hollow stem T OO The fast sleeve or collar 10 is straddled by` 23, and this rod of the bottle-stand may be raised or lowered by the adjustment of a collar 30, which is clamped to the rod 29, and is adapted to rest on the upper end of the stem 23. rlhe pin 25 at the lower end of the stem 23 is provided with a depending foot-piece 31, having aslotted lower part 32, which is loosely iitted on the shaft 8, and this foot-piece carries a roller 33, which is arranged to ride directly on a cam 34, that is made fast with a projecting end portion of the main shaft 8,-

whereby the cam is adapted to lift the roller, the foot-piece, the pin, and the stem 23 in order to raise and lower the bottle-stand 24 at the required intervals.

From the upper extremity of the hollow column 5 extends a vertical bracket arm 35,

which serves to support a suitable hopper 36 f in a [ixed position on the post or column. A

horizontal guide 37 is firmly attached to the,

post or column near its upper end, and in this guide is provided a horizontal slot or way 38, the outer end of said guide being provided with a depending hollow spout 39, which is recessed or cut away on one side in order to allow the mouth portion of a'bottle to readily fit in the spout so as to be in alinement vertically with a plunger-passage through said spout. The lower open end of the hopper 36 terminates at a suitable distance above thel horizontal guide 37 and the corks are conducted from this hopper to the guide by means of a chute. This chute is shown'by the drawings as consisting of a series of rods 40 and a ring 41, said ring resting on top of the guide 37 and occupying a position at one side of the vertical plane of the spout 39. The series of rods 40 are fastened at their upper ends to the lower part of the hopper 36 in any approved way, and the lower ends of said rods are attached to the ring 41. rlhe rods 40 are arranged or grouped substantially in annular series, as represented by Fig. 4, and these rods are inclined from the hopper toward the spout 39 of the guide 38.

42 designates a verticallyreciprocating plunger-operating slide, which is represented by Fig. 3 in the form of a tube, the latter being snugly fitted in the hollow column 5, so as to be reciprocable lengthwise therein and to be guided thereby. The upper part of this slide 42 is provided with a horizontally-'extending arm 43, which passes loosely through a slot 44, that is formed in the upper front side of the standard or column 5 at a point between the bracket 35 and the guide 37. rlhis laterally-extending arm 43 is provided 'with a depending plunger 45, that is adapted to play vertically in the spout 39, said plunger 45 being movable vertically with the arm 43 and the slide 42. To the lower end of said slide 42 is connected a pitman 46 by means of a pivotal pin 47, and this pitman 46 is provided at its lower portion with an eccentricstrap 48, which loosely embraces an eccentric side of the post or column.

49, that is clamped on the main shaft 8 at a point within the hollow bed 6.

50 designates an agitator-slide which is provided with a sleeve 51, that is iitted slidably to one of the rods 40 of the chute. Said agitator-slide is arranged within the chute and is adaptedto project into the contracted lower portion of the hopper 36. To the sleeve 51 of the slide is connected the upper part of a short -pitman 52, which has pivotal connection with the horizontal arm 43 of the plungeroperating slide,42 whereby the agitator slide is actuated by connection with a part of said plunger-operating slide 42.

53 designates a brake-spring which is secured at its upper end to the bracket-arm 35. The lower part of this brake-springis forked or bifurcated at 54 and is arranged to work in the lower part of the chute formed'by the rods 40. With this forked part of the brakespring isloosely engaged the upper portion of a bell-crank lever 55, which is fulcrumed at its knee to the stationary chute-ring 41,l

and the other arm of this bell-crank lever is disposed in the-path of the arm 43 of the plunger-operating slide, so that on the downward movement of this arm and the slide the bell-crank lever will be actuated to throw the lower part of the brake-spring away from the path of the corks which are fed through said chute 40, whereby the brake-spring is retracted to allow one cork to pass when the bottleholder 24 is lowered previous to the insertionv of another bottle in the machine. The brakespring 53 is normally operated to check or arrest the feed of the corks through the chute; but, as described, it is automatically withdrawn when it is desired to allow a fresh cork to pass into position for operation by the driving-plunger 45.

56 designates a bell-crank lever which is fulcrumed at its knee to a lug 57 on the front The vertical arm of this lever 56 is provided with a head 58, that is arranged to slide horizontally in the slot 38- of the horizontal guide 37, said head of the lever being movable toward the spout 39 of the guide and across the lower open side of the ring 41, forming a part 4of the corkchute. The lever-head in the position shown by Fig. 3 prevents the corks from passing through the ring 41; but when said lever is moved backwardly to the position shown by full lines in Fig;v 2 the head 58 is moved to one side ofthe ring 41 to enable a cork to drop through the ring and into the slot of the guide 37, so as to lie in front of the leverhead 58, wherebyfthe cork may be pushed forward into the spout 39 on the next movement of the lever 56. The horizontal arm of the leverl 56 is connected pivotally to the upper extremity of a pitman 59, which is provided at its lower part with a foot-piece 60, that is slotted or forked to embrace the main shaft 8, and on this foot-piece is mounted a IOO IIO

friction-roller 61, that is adapted to ride upon a cam 62, which is clamped to the main shaft and rotates therewith, whereby the cam is adapted to actuate the pitman 59 and the lebottle-actuated bell-crank lever 63 is fulcrumed at its knee on the arm 22 of the post, and the upper end of this lever is provided with a shoe 64, which is arranged to lit close to the bottle-stand 24. The horizontal arm of said lever 63 is engaged bya coiled liftingspring 65., which is attached tothe post 5, and to the free end of said lever-arm is pivoted a link 66, having its lower end connected to one arm of a bell-crank lever 67, the latter being fulcrumed on an offstandin-g bracket 68 at the rear side of the post. This lever 67 carries a pawl 69, which is looselypivoted to the lower end thereof, said pawl being adapted for engagement with a short vertical lever 70, the latter being fulcrumed on a part of the base 6, as at 71 in Fig. 3.

72 designates a horizontalbail which is pivotally supported at 73 on the rear side of the column and at a point just above the shouldered iange of the loose pulley 9. This bail is provided at its middle with a horizontal tubular guide 74, which is provided with a transverse slot 75, and in said guide is slidably fitted a rod 76, which is adapted under certain conditions to project from the guide into overhanging relation to the flange on the pulley 9. The rod 76 is provided at a point intermediate of its length with a transverse slot which is in alinement with lthe slot 75 of the tubular guide, and through the slots passes the upper end of the lever 70, so that the nose end of said lever is adapted for engagement by the pawl 69. The pivotal bail 72 is normally drawn in a downward direction by means of a coiled spring 77, which is hitched to the bail and to one of the bearings 7, and with the lever 7() is engaged a coiled spring 78, which is fastened at one end to the bail 72 and at its other end to said lever. (See Fig. The bail 72 is mounted to Swing on a horizontal axis in avertical plane, and at the middle portion of this bail it is provided with a depending lip 0r stud 79, having a beveled face which is adapted to engage with the upper extremity of the clutch-lever 17 whereby the downward movement of the bail under the energy of the spring 77 after theclutch-lev'er begins to turn with the shaft serves to place the shoulder 79 in thepath of the clutch-lever for the purpose of throwing the clutch-lever from engagement with the clutch-ring on the loose pulley when said lever makes a complete turn with the shaft.

When the machine is at rest in the position Vfirst half of the rotation of the shaft 8.

shown by Fig. 2', the pawl 69 engages with the upper free end of the lever 70, the spring 77 pulling the bail 7 2 in adownward direction and the spring 78 pulling thelever 7 O in an inward direction, so as to withdraw the end portion of therod 76 from the path of the inclined faces 13 on the rim of the pulley, whereby the lug 79 will press the clutch-lever 17 out of engagement with the pulley and the latter is free to rotate on the shaft without operating the machine. The insertion of a bottle on the stand 24 presses the shoe 64 of the lever 63 in an inward direction, thereby operating e are raised by the shoulder 13 to free theclutchlever 17 and the spring 2O impels the clutchlever into engagement with the pulley, so as to drive the shaft 8 and start the machine, the lever 17 rotating with the shaft 8. The lever 70 is pulled by the spring 78 to move the rod' 76 back into the guide 7 4, and the spring 77 pulls the bail 72 down for the shoulder 79 to lie in the path of the lever 17, so that on the complete rotation of the lever 17 with the shaft 8 said lever will again engage the shoulder7 9, so as to be withdrawn again from the pulley and stop the machine. When the machine is started,.the cam 34 raises the stem 23 and the bottle-stand to force the mouth portion of the bottle into close engagement with the spout 39. The slide 42 is raised by the eccentric 49 to elevate the plunger 45, and the lever 56 is operated by the cam 62 to make its head 58 force a cork into the spout 39 and below the plunger, these operations taking place on the The bottle-stand is held in its raised position while the eccentric 49operates the slide 42 and the plunger to force the cork into the bottle, and at the proper period before completion of the rotation of the shaft the clu-tch is disengaged from the pulley, so as to arrest the operation of the machine, the bottle-stand being lowered in the meanwhile to allow the corked bottle to be easily removed.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patenti i 1. A bottle-corking machine having a plunger-driving'mechanism, a main shaft, means actuated by said shaft for operating the plunger-d rivingmechanism, a loose pulley, a clutch for making said pulley fast with the shaft,

and means operated by the insertion of a bot- -tle for automatically throwing the clutchinto engagement with the pulley and making the latter fast with said shaft.

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3. A bottle-corking machine having a camshaft, a magazine, a plungermechanism driven by the cam-shaft, a bottle-stand actuated by the cam-shaft and disposed in cooperative relation to the plunger mechanism, a driving member on the cam-shaft, a clutch mechanism, and means actuated by the insertion of a bottle on the bottle-stand for controlling the clutch and making the driving member fast with saidcam-shaft.

4:. A bottle-corking machine having acamshaft, a driving member thereon, a movable bottle stand actuated by the cam'- shaft, a clutch mechanism cooperating with said shaft and the driving member for releasing the latter from said shaft at a proper period, and bottle-actuated means in operative relation to the bottle stand and cooperating with the clutch mechanism for making the driving member fast with said shaft on the introduction of a bottle on the bottle-stand.

5. A bottle-corking machine having a main shaft, -a driving member thereon, a clutch mechanism cooperating with said shaft and the driving member for coupling and releasing the driving member to and from the shaft, a bottle-stand, and bottle-actuated devices in operative relation to the bottle-,stand and cooperating with the clutch mechanism for making the latter couple the driving member to the shaft on the introduction of a bottle to said stand.

6. A bottle-corking machine havinga main shaft, a driving member thereon, a clutch mechanism cooperating with said shaft and said driving member, a bottle-stand, a bottleactuatedy lever in operative relation to the stand, and a dog controllable by said lever and cooperating with a part of the clutch mechanism for operating the latter to make the driving member fast with the shaft.

7. A bottle-corking machine havinga camshaft, a plunger mechanism actuated by said cam-shaft, a vertically-movable bottle-stand in operative relation to the plunger mechanism, and a shoe having yieldable connection with the bottle stand and actuated by the cam-shaft, said bottle-stand being actuated by the shoe and yieldable relatively to said shoe and the plunger mechanism.

8. A bottle-corking machine having a hollow column, a cam-shaft, a slide fitted in and guided by the column, a stem movable with the slide and actuated by the cam-shaft, an arm carried by the slide and provided with a plunger, a bottle-stand actuated by the cam-shaft and in line with the plunger, and means for feeding corks in the path of the plunger.

9. A bottle-corking machine, having a camshaft, a column, a magazine, a cork-guide supported by said column below said magazine, a lever mounted on said column to turn on a horizontal axis and provided with a head arranged to playin the cork-guide, means for feeding corlrs to the cork-guide in the path of said lever-head, connections between the camshaft and the lever for actuating the latter, and a plunger operable in the cork-guide.

10. A bottle-corking machine having a plunger mechanism, a magazine, a spout depending from the magazine for feeding corks to the plunger mechanism, a spring disposed in said spout, and a pivoted retractor having one arm connected to the spring and another arm disposed in the path of an element of the plunger mechanism.

11. In a bottle-corking machine, the combination of a fixed stem-guide, a vertical stem slidably fitted in said guide, a bottle-stand carried by said stem, a main shaft provided with a cam, a foot-piece fitted slidably to the stem and having means for engagement with said cam, and a spring supported by the stem and opposing the movement of the foot-piece.

12. In a bottle-corking machine the 4combination of a main shaft, a loose pulley thereon and provided with a series of cam projections, a clutch revoluble with the shaft and coperating with the pulley, a bail having means for engagement with said clutch, a lever operatively related to the bail, a rod carried by the bail and controllable by said lever for movement toward and from the cam projections on the pulley, and bottle-actuated means including a pawl disposed for engagement with said lever.

13. In a bottle-corking machine, the combination of a shaft, a bottle-stand, a loose pulley on said shaft and provided with a series of cam projections, a clutch revoluble with said shaft and arranged for cooperation with said pulley, a spring-controlled pivoted bail having a guide and a projection, the latter being adapted for engagement with a part of said clutch, a pin slidable in said guide of the bail and disposed for engagement with the cam projections on the pulley, a spring-controlled lever fitted to said bail and the rod, a bottle-actuated lever having a shoe, and another lever connected with said bottle-actuated lever and carrying apawl disposed for engagement with the lever which controls the rod.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN F. SCHNEIDER. v

Witnesses:

JNO. M. RITTER, H. T. BERNHORD.

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